Technology helps youngster learn to talk

Rachael Murray
Reporter
Rachael started at The Chronicle in November 2013 after completing an internship earlier in the year. She graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Creative Arts, majoring in English literature and creative writing.

Khaleb Rohayem has down syndrome and uses technology, an ipad with Prologue2go app to communicate. He is pictured with his mother Jennifer Thomson. Bev Lacey

ADVANCES in technology are helping children like seven-year-old Khaleb Rohayem learn to ''talk''.

Khaleb was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at two weeks old and has been unable to speak as a result of his disabilities which also include hypothyroidism and type 1 diabetes.

With his iPad in hand, the smiling seven-year-old can share his love of the Wiggles and introduce himself to strangers.

His mother Jennifer Thomson said Khaleb was a happy but shy child, wary of large crowds and loud noise.

"He is gentle and quiet at first, but once he gets to know you he'll be all over you," she said.

This week Khaleb will join other children and teenagers with complex communication needs to learn new and innovative ways to express himself at the Cerebral Palsy League's 13th annual Camp Have a Chat.

This year's camp coincides with World Cerebral Palsy Day yesterday - a way for the 17 million people with cerebral palsy to tell the world how their lives could be better.

Camp program coordinator Mercia Lewis said several of this year's participants were attending for the first time and would learn to better use some of the latest communication technologies and techniques like the iPad Proloquo2go, Dyna Vox, PODD Books and Eco 2.

"It will be Khaleb's first time at camp, and he'll be bringing along his iPad with the Proloquo2go app along, so we hope to be able to show him new ways of using it to express himself," Ms Lewis said.

"I believe he is soon getting a second one specifically for school with larger memory, so that it can store all of the language assistance apps he needs," she said.

"Our goal is to help these kids learn new ways of expressing themselves so they can communicate with confidence and become more active members of their families and communities."

According to Ms Lewis, most of the children attending camp this year have cerebral palsy but a few have other mental and physical impairments including Down Syndrome, epilepsy and autism.

"All of our participants have complex communication needs, and are either non-verbal or have decreased speech clarity - speech that is difficult to understand," she said.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

For more information visit www.cpl.org.au and search for Camp Have a Chat.